About

I’m Brian and I’ve been using Linux since 1996. I know my way around, but I won’t claim to be an expert about the nuts and bolts of it all. However, I write stuff, and I like writing stuff, so I thought I’d write this stuff for your benefit. Give back a little. You know.

Back in the day, I was quite the purist, but as I’ve gotten older and simply need to get things done, I’ve strayed. I’m happy to install third-party applications, and I prefer to pare down a full-featured system rather than build up something from scratch. So that’s my approach here. I you don’t like that, then maybe I’m not the writer for you. I won’t be offended; writers are hard to offend.

My mission

Write no-bullshit articles about some of my recent experiences with Linux, in particular laptops.

Why me

My experience with computers includes a brief stint as a computer science major (in 1992), a technical writer (1997), a programmer (1999-2010), and a hobbyist setting up and administering a variety of personal servers ever since. For example, I run a home media server (which I won’t provide a link to, for obvious reasons), I run an educational site using Moodle, and various blog sites hosted from home. (This one is professionally hosted by a lovely professional organisation I’ve used for 20 years. My kids have zero access to their servers, so the risk of a child smearing ice cream on the server that runs my website is vanishingly small.)

At this point, as a professional writer, my software experience is mostly setting up a machine to support that kind of lifestyle. If you’re looking for hardcore media processing, I’m not your guy. If you want to collaborate on documents, and generally have a snappy, functional laptop without being bound to Microsoft products, welcome.

If you want to know more, here’s a Portfolio of a few other things I’ve done in recent years. And here’s a Professional Introduction to services I offer in my vaguely professional life. (I work for myself, and by all accounts, I’m a terrible manager.)

If you really want, you can email me.